Re: Life on Earth with rings
It's a complex question. First thing would be, what are the rings made of? If a rocky moon like ours broke up, it would produce a different sort of ring system than rings made up of ice moon materials. A rocky ring would be less reflective I would guess. Our moon has a certain makeup on its surface that makes it reflect quite brightly, but I don't know if this would be true if you busted it into gravel.
On the other hand, Earth is a lot closer to the sun, so brightness would be increased. I wonder if anyone has done a detailed study.